Marcus Wilson • Jan 11, 2019 •
“Don’t eat beef.” Such a statement does not go down well in New Zealand, especially in Waikato, where the cow reigns supreme. I don’t say it as someone who wants to peddle a “Meat is Murder” message. I don’t believe that at all. I say it as someone who wants New Zealand to take Climate Change seriously. Quite simply, producing … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 18, 2018 •
Adrian R. Camilleri, University of Technology Sydney; Dalia Patino-Echeverri, Duke University, and Rick Larrick, Duke University What did you have for dinner last night? Might you have made a different choice if you had a simple way to compare the environmental impacts of different foods? Most people do not recognise the environmental impact of … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 17, 2018 •
Bronwyn Hayward The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change deliberately left making decisions about what to do to achieve change up to governments and relies on citizens to press their governments to do more. This was a deliberate decision so that diverse governments could at least agree climate change was a problem (a first vital step in international change), but … Read More
Nic Rawlence • Nov 27, 2018 •
Fossil hunting along the rugged and beautiful Wairarapa coastline is a dangerous exercise. Prevail against the harsh winds that blow you off your feet and fossil penguins will be your reward – prehistoric nuggets of gold from a lost world that is only now yielding its secrets. Risking life and limb: At the rugged Te Kaukau Point, bones of … Read More
Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Nov 01, 2018 •
Phew, it’s been a busy month in the news agenda: from the IPCC’s 1.5C report to turmoil in the National party and tragedy in Wanaka and Mt Cook. Through all of that, you’d be forgiven for missing some of the excellent science-related stories that have been published over the past month. But never fear, we’ve collated some of our favourites … Read More
Eric Crampton • Oct 09, 2018 •
New Zealand has an emissions trading scheme. It isn’t perfect. But for the sectors covered by the ETS, including transport, best policy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is fairly simple: buy and retire credits. The government simply cannot know whether the cheapest way of reducing CO2 emissions is by getting the least efficient cars off the road; having people switch … Read More
Eric Crampton • Sep 28, 2018 •
MBIE’s advice on Labour’s ban on Taranaki oil and gas exploration suggested that global emissions could go up. Could that happen? It depends on what you think’s going on in the rest of the world. Suppose that the whole world were under a binding emissions cap under a global cap and trade regime. If New Zealand produced less natural … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 17, 2018 •
We’ve had more than 100 years of warnings of human-induced climate change now. It’s nearer 200 years, really. Before records were taken they would be extrapolations rather than observations. Extrapolations are harder for those outside of science to trust, but extrapolations are part of what science does. Looking to where things might go is useful. This pithy, insightful newspaper article … Read More
Guest Author • Aug 14, 2018 •
Catherine Leining, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research To chart a successful future for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), we need to understand its present and its past. Researchers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research have published a new Guide to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. This guide covers the basics of how … Read More
Michael Reddell • Aug 06, 2018 •
James Shaw, co-leader of the Green Party and Minister for Climate Change (surely Minister against it?), tells us he is working his way through 15000 submissions on the recent climate change consultation document. I’ve done a couple of posts here on the document, and on the NZIER modelling used extensively in it, and I’ve chided both the Minister … Read More